Teachers thrash students for laughing

Teachers thrash students for laughing
K S Manojkumar

AURANGABAD, JULY 10: Irked by a spontaneous burst of laughter among class X students attending a night studies session, eight teachers at a village school in village Chitegaon, severely beat up over 30 students, causing them severe injuries last Thursday.

A number of students had to be admitted to the Government Medical College and Hospital here. While all the accused in the case, including the headmaster, Laxman Gore, who actually led the attack and later went on to justify his act, have been released on bail, the incident has sent shock-waves in the 3,000-strong village.

The injured students have a horrifying tale to relate. ``We were gathered in the school on Thursday night, as usual, when suddenly the electricity went off. We began chatting among ourselves. The teachers, eight in all, were sitting nearby, when, one of our friends, who stammers in his speech, said something and we all burst into laughter,'' says Shivaji Tupsunder.

The noise irritated one of the teachers who sought to know whether the students were trying a practical joke on them. ``But even before the students could explain, he began to hit us like someone possessed. Other teachers soon took the cue and began thrashing us, some hitting us with their shoes, says Pradeep Pawar.

Next day, on July 6, when the students marched up to the headmaster, Laxman Gore, worse was in store for them. Gore, who is better known as a former University kabbadi champ, now took upon himself to complete what his colleagues had left incomplete the previous night.

``He kicked us on our backs and faces and dragged me to the nearby stagnant water pound, '' says Tupsundar.

Had the thrashing been over something to do with studies or misbehaviour, we would have perhaps never let anyone know of the incident, he said. But there is more to the incident. It does not involve just physical crime, inquiries revealed.